Lisa Horwedel Barton

Lisa Barton is a shareholder who advises clients on employee benefits and executive compensation issues. Lisa’s practice focuses on providing strategic advice associated with the design, implementation, and ongoing administration of employee benefit plans and programs including 401(k) and pension plans, health and retiree medical plans, equity and long-term incentive arrangements, executive and broad-based severance plans, nonqualified deferred compensation plans, and other executive compensation arrangements including employment agreements and fringe benefit plans.Lisa’s clients are both public and private and span various industries including retail, manufacturing, life sciences, energy, health care, higher education and information technology. She regularly represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration in various types of proceedings associated with the correction of administrative errors, agency-initiated audits and business transactions and reorganizations. Lisa’s practice also includes advising fiduciary committees on issues relating to fiduciary governance and fiduciary process including the management of participant claims and appeals, plan administration and the investment of plan assets. Her wide-ranging experience provides clients with practical risk mitigation suggestions and strategies.Lisa provides advice to clients for both ongoing benefits matters as well as in the context of corporate transactions where she oversees diligence reviews of benefits plans and post-transaction benefit plan corrections, mergers and terminations. She assists with the design and implementation of retention, employment and severance agreements and the associated issues that arise under Code Sections 280G and 409A.Lisa also frequently advises clients on workforce change issues including the implementation of early retirement programs, reductions in force, and other business changes.Recognition & LeadershipAwards & AccoladesListed, The Best Lawyers in America, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law, Boston, 2023-2026 Listed, The Legal 500 United States, Labor and employment: Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: design, 2019, 2022 Listed, National Diversity Counsel, “Most Powerful and Influential Women in Pennsylvania,” 2011Experience: Representative Matters: Represents a global retailer in complex wage and hour litigation in jurisdictions across the country including defense of wage statement, final pay, predictability pay, meal break, and other off-the-clock claims.; Represented a global retailer in obtaining dismissal with prejudice of six of nine causes of action in a putative class action filed by a former employee alleging violations of California labor laws, including meal and rest break claims, minimum wage and overtime claims, claims for waiting time penalties, claims for penalties under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), and derivative claims under the Unfair Competition Law (UCL); this decision substantially reduced the client's exposure in the case by hundreds of millions of dollars and led to resolution of the matter on an individual basis.; Represented two national telecommunication companies in various multi-plaintiff wage and hour litigation matters involving alleged violations of the FLSA.; Represented a national cosmetology school in Rule 23 consumer class actions involving alleged violations of Pennsylvania and New Jersey consumer protection statutes, as well as purported claims for breach of implied contract, and unjust enrichment/disgorgement.; Represented a national cosmetology school in matter involving purported nationwide FLSA collective action and multiple Rule 23 state wage and hour law class actions in which students alleged the school owed them wages for time spent in class.; Represented an international spa company in purported Connecticut wage and hour class and collective action arbitration in which personal service employees asserted multiple causes of action for alleged unpaid wages, including commissions, tips and overtime premium payments; successfully negotiated stipulation for consolidated mediation and arbitration of individual claims of opt-in claimants and achieved voluntary dismissal with prejudice of class allegations.; Represented two diners in New York state wage and hour class and collective action in which seven named plaintiffs allege multiple federal and state wage law violations, including unpaid minimum wages, overtime premium payments, and spread of hours payments.; Represented a restaurant in New York state wage and hour class action in which three restaurant workers alleged failure to pay minimum wages, overtime premium payments, and spread of hours payments; class and collective allegations voluntarily dismissed and individual claims of three named plaintiffs settled.; Represented a professional staffing services firm in purported nationwide collective action in which financial services industry workers alleged they were misclassified as exempt administrative and/or executive employees in violation of the FLSA; named and purported opt-in plaintiffs stipulated to consolidated mediation and arbitration and individual claims of the plaintiffs settled at mediation.; The above representations were handled by Ms. Bare prior to her joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.